Is America Morally Bankrupt?

Dear America! If you are looking for someone to blow out the candles for your 250th birthday celebration, look no farther than the 342 million of us who call America our home. The last time we were in support of anything was right after 911. We had a common enemy. We were unified. We listened to each other. Yet, what happened? For the past 25 years our common enemy has been ourselves.

When twins are born in Asia, the culture looks at them and sees similarity. In America, we do just the opposite. We look for difference at every turn. This perspective is prevalent in politics. Demonizing the other side outweighs the coming together for the common good. Here’s a solution. We begin by every citizen being invited to the birthday party of America and in unison blowing out the candles together.

Has our divisiveness towards each other impacted our morality? Are we quick to negate someone because of their political leanings? Has this led to a lack of compassion? Are we only concerned about ourselves that we cannot find the communal good in anything anymore? Has our transactional nature ignored the essence of fairness and freedom? Does freedom for all only mean freedom for just white people or black people or brown people or people who look like us? Are some Americans more American than others? Because we have an accent or because we have brown or black skin, does that make us less American? Are all Americans allowed to blow out the candles of Freedom or just the white ones?

Lady Liberty inscription “Give me your tired, your poor; Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” is a welcome, an invitation, a breath of fresh air for the world’s citizens, and also a welcome for others different than ourselves to come live with us, because we want the multiculturism of the world, we want a society free of homogeny, we want the smells of the world in our kitchens, in our neighborhoods, in our society, we want the tunes of the Earth echoing in our cities and clubs and we want the dances of the world in every corner of our nation. Every culture in America is invited to celebrate our birthday. Yes, come one, come all.

Have we become less tolerant of those who look different than us by categorizing them as them? Has our love of money superseded our love of others? Have we become a transactional society motivated by only a profitable concrete return on investment? Have we lost our communal way by our individualists’ supremacism?

Do we lie on our death beds and regret not being kinder, gentler, or remembered as compassionate? We do. Just ask a hospice nurse. Hearses never pull a U-Haul trailer behind them. We regret the time we did not spend with others, the money we made instead of the time we spent with family and the free kindness we possessed yet never offered.

Osker Schindler saved over 1400 Jews during World War II. Surrounded by those he saved after the war, he broke down, kicked his car and uttered: “I could have saved more.” Are there more Oskers in America?

Is our moral compass experiencing a momentary hiccup or are we headed for a reckoning cliff? If we are not here to serve others, why are we here?

Happy Birthday, America. Bring your poor, your rich, your brown, your black, your white, your Asian, your African, ALL of your citizens together to celebrate this great nation of ours. We all are American and invited to the party.

Farmer Banks Helfrich teaches gardening monthly at Florida Blue Clermont and on his seven-acre farm which includes15 different instructional gardens. Farm tours are every 2nd Sunday. Call Farmer Banks for more information. (407) 616-9720